Why They Hate Sarah Palin

It’s not unusual for politicians to inspire strong emotions. After all, there is a reason why people suggest you avoid talking about race, religion, and politics if you want to have a nice dinner conversation.

Although Sarah Palin is more loved by the Right than any other politician in America, she has her detractors there as well. Staffers engage in whispering campaigns against her, quisling Republicans write offensive columns about her for liberal publications, and sneering Beltway hacks tut-tut about her on the cable news shows.

It would be understandable if Sarah Palin were President and produced this type of reaction, but the governor of Alaska? Most people couldn’t even name half a dozen governors, much less obsess over what they’re doing. So, why is this little lady producing such a big hubbub?

Well, there are many reasons for it, starting with her gender: Sarah Palin, had she been elected to the White House, would have been the first female VP. Moreover, she would have to be the odds-on favorite at this point to become the first woman President.

That upsets liberal feminists to no end because she is a living, breathing refutation of their style of feminism — which is intellectually bankrupt and seems to stand for nothing any more except increasing the number of abortions, encouraging teenage girls to act like skanks, and pointless complaining about the “patriarchy.” Sarah Palin represents a totally different style of woman: the conservative feminist. She’s had a successful career, raised a big family, and has done it all without aborting an “inconvenient” child or carping about men keeping her down. The idea that Sarah Palin could become the new role model for feminists terrifies liberals and it has inspired them to ramp up the artillery barrage of malignity that they typically launch at conservative women, which is extraordinarily venomous to begin with. Whether it’s Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, or Carrie Prejean, there are few things on earth that liberals hate more than strong, conservative women.

Palin’s sex has caused problems for her on the Right as well, but not as the Left would tell you to expect, from gaggles of men who think she should be barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. Despite the fact that Sarah Palin was the best thing to happen to John McCain’s presidential campaign, the honest truth is that Sarah Palin was an identity politics pick. Had she been a man, someone with her limited experience would have never been selected. On the Left, this wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow, but on the Right, it created waves of resentment that have hurt Sarah Palin with some Republicans.

Additionally, Sarah Palin’s background has caused issues for her. She is what most politicians pretend to be: just a regular person who climbed up through the ranks. She doesn’t come from old money or a famous family. She didn’t go to an Ivy League school. She hasn’t spent decades kibitzing at New York and D.C. cocktail parties with people who view themselves to be the elite of American society. To the contrary, Sarah Palin is a PTA mom, hunter, and Wasilla beauty queen from small town America who attended five different colleges.

With a pedigree like that it wouldn’t matter if she cured cancer and turned lead into gold; to some elitists in both parties she’s never going to be acceptable.

The woman didn’t even go to an Ivy League school, for God sake — and has she ever been on a yacht? And don’t get them started on those dreadful beauty pageants and the hunting. Maybe if she had hunted foxes in her youth, it would be understandable, but moose? Oh, and the worst thing is that accent. A New York accent or a Boston accent, well, of course, that would be fine — but Alaskan? Imagine bringing her to a dinner party in the Hamptons. People would just titter at her every utterance until they could barely finish their Chardonnay and caviar! For snobs who think like this, Sarah Palin will never be up to code.

Last but not least, in Rome the first thing a new emperor would do when he took the throne was to try to maneuver his potential rivals out of the way. Given her charisma, popularity, and the enthusiasm she generates among conservatives, Sarah Palin is the candidate most likely to be Barack Obama’s most dangerous foe next time around.

So, when liberals smear Sarah Palin, they’re smearing the person whom they fear they’re going to have to go toe-to-toe with in 2012. When they make rape jokes about her children, as did David Letterman, they’re trying to send her a message: “Don’t run for President or we’ll go after your children to get to you.” When they file laughable ethics charge after ethics charge against her, they’re doing it not because they think she did anything wrong, but because they’re hoping the sheer number of false charges will take some of the luster off a woman who is known for fighting corruption.

The attacks on the Left are probably not so surprising to most people, but the ones on the Right may be slipping in under the radar. How many nasty anonymous comments about Sarah Palin have undoubtedly been made by people who support Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, or one of the other candidates that are running in 2012? It seems doubtful that it’s a smear campaign organized by any of the potential contenders, but as we all know, the campaign season starts earlier and earlier every time and many of these attacks are probably aimed at taking the shine off of the candidate who would be the favorite to capture the nomination if she runs.

There is also another angle to this. Sarah Palin’s views are much more representative of the average conservative in flyover country than even some Republicans would like. That’s true of Republican moderates who desperately want to see the party abandon its conservative roots. Other Republicans who’ve been in Washington a little too long may grudgingly give lip service to conservative ideas, but truthfully, they believe all wisdom comes from D.C. These are people who never really liked Reagan and who view their constituents as their servants, instead of vice-versa. A prominent Republican politician like Sarah Palin, whose influence and success are totally dependent on keeping the hoi-polloi in the base happy, is a threat to their agenda.

What Sarah Palin’s future holds is still unknown, but one thing is for sure: if she runs in 2012, she will inspire legendary enthusiasm from her supporters and a blitzkrieg of hatred from her enemies.

John Hawkins's book 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know is filled with lessons that newly minted adults need in order to get the most out of life. Gleaned from a lifetime of trial, error, and writing it down, Hawkins provides advice everyone can benefit from in short, digestible chapters.